


I Could Pack My Things (And Be Gone Before You Wake)

by bonespell



Series: May Night Be Swift And Soon Give Way [2]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Injury, Good Older Sibling Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, Niki and Tommy are Recovering, Recovery, Technoblade Cares Still, TommyInnit Needs a Hug (Video Blogging RPF), TommyInnit-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Villain Jack Manifold, Villain Niki | Nihachu, Wilbur Soot and Technoblade and TommyInnit are Siblings, also known as: the rescue fic, as per usual with my fics, field medicine, formerly, he gets one, or - Freeform, they will be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 00:46:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29323416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bonespell/pseuds/bonespell
Summary: “Tommy?” Niki asks hoarsely, accent thick from sleep. Her accent nowadays is far less thick than it used to be, and this sleepy version is sort of comforting to him - it’s familiar.He looks at her, and does not respond. She makes an annoyed face when she sees her hands are bound, and goes to sit up. Tommy opens his mouth to stop her, but before he can, she goes white and eases back down.“I don’t think getting up is a good idea,” Tommy says, surprised by how his voice matches the hoarseness of hers. There is, he supposes, still a chain around his neck he cannot get off - that’s probably the reason.“What did you do to me?”“Saved your life.”“What the hell do you mean?” Niki nearly spits, and Tommy resists the urge to roll his eyes. He’s alert and on guard, but half of his thoughts want food. He hasn’t eaten in so long. He thinks he may be sick, but he doesn’t have time to worry about that right now.“Jack shot you,” Tommy says simply, bringing more handfuls of water to his lips slowly. “I stopped the bleeding and saved your life. Why are you so surprised?”
Relationships: Niki | Nihachu & Technoblade, Niki | Nihachu & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, TommyInnit & Wilbur Soot (Mentioned)
Series: May Night Be Swift And Soon Give Way [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2153904
Comments: 26
Kudos: 531





	I Could Pack My Things (And Be Gone Before You Wake)

**Author's Note:**

> i promised a sequel and a sequel i shall give to you. be fed my children.
> 
> tommy deserves some gotdamn downtime and happiness and therapy i said what i said
> 
> so does everyone tbh-
> 
> (warning for graphic descriptions of violence! tommy does some impromptu field surgery - to skip it, it starts at "He supposes that makes sense." and ends at "He looks to the side, where her belt lays.")

Tommy is tiring quickly - he’s never been the most physically fit (Besides, he figures, wartime), and he’s most definitely not anymore. He’s skin and bones and pronounced ribs from months of insatiable hunger and little appetite. Niki is light, but she has far more weight on her bones than him, and he cannot run for long.

He doesn’t know what she meant by ‘find them,’ or who _they_ even are (though he has a hunch) and he doesn’t know how to go about it. Right now, his instincts are telling him to find shelter, find a place to hide, and they’ve never failed him before.

(Well, some traitorous part of his poison-damaged mind whispers, they have once. You thought he was okay, didn’t you?)

(Shut up, Tommy snaps back vehemently.)

Tommy hears the trickle of water, and turns towards it. There is a massive growth in front of a cliff - He almost misses the cave entrance due to that.

Ignoring how it painfully scrapes at his skin, he shoves himself and Niki both through the brush, and they stumble into a small, circular room - There is a small freshwater pool in the corner, and he grins involuntarily before it slips from his face just as quickly.

Right. Niki.

Tommy doesn’t know why Niki did what she did, but at least, he supposes, he’s in the position to ask. He lays her down, packing Wilbur’s cloak under her head despite how cold it leaves him, and rummages through her bag.

_Bingo_ , he thinks as his fingers brush a roll of bandages and a small container of antiseptic. He feels bad doing this, even if it’s entirely necessary and he’s numb to the horrors of field medicine at this point. He isn’t sure why he feels bad - surely she deserves any pain that comes to her.

He gives the arrow a very gentle tug, more aimed to move it about and test its location than to remove it. His guess is that it’s barbed, but he assumes it isn’t lodged in bone based on placement - which means it is time for the actual surgical part.

The first time he saw this done he puked after it was done. It was during a rather treacherous endeavour in Business Bay - He and Deo had been trapped in a landslide with Icebomb and Grunk, and Icebomb had been hit. Grunk, steely, had set to the proper operations to keep Icebomb alive, and Deo had urged Tommy to please look away for this.

He’s so glad he took the time to learn all of this later, even if the first time he saw and smelled it he had retched into the grass for hours with periodic sobs and Deo’s steady hand rubbing circles in his back.

Tommy takes Niki’s netherite dagger from its sheath, and sets up a small, temporary fire. It cannot stay, because the smoke will give away their location to Jack who he doesn’t _doubt_ is searching for them, but he needs it for this moment.

“Sorry Niki,” He murmurs, acutely aware of how the shackles around his wrists clank, the loose, broken chain hitting whatever he brings his arms near. “This isn’t gonna scar pretty.”

Now that he thinks about them, he realises how badly his wrists hurt. However, now isn’t time for his own, non-fatal injuries. It’s time for Niki’s unfortunately fatal ones, unless he does what he has to now.

He lays the blade in the flame, and waits for it to heat. In the meantime, he pulls Niki’s layers of clothing away from her abdomen where the arrow is lodged, using the hunting knife he’d found strapped to her ankle to cut away the bloodied fabric around the wound. He tries to salvage whatever he can, trying to decide what’s the best way to do this without hurting her further.

Before he knows it, the blade is heated, and the dread bubbling in his stomach only begins to flip it. He knows he has steady hands - He’s a seamster and a veteran of war and espionage. He will not fail to do this, but it does not take away his nerves. It never does - he has never failed to save someone, but still every time he gets nervous.

He supposes that makes sense.

Tommy throws one leg over her, pinning her wrists with his knees to try to prevent any thrashing and causing him to hurt her. He places her handkerchief in her mouth so she doesn’t bite her tongue, and prays to any god who may listen and still love him that she stays unconscious.

Without any further stalling, he kneels over her and gently brings the blade down.

The smell of burning flesh is the first thing to hit him - He sinks the knife deep into the pale, formerly unmarred skin of her abdomen. He is careful as he cuts around the arrow, and the searing heat of the knife cauterizes the wound as he goes.

It takes only a few minutes to finish cutting at most, but he thinks he’s temporarily lost his sense of taste and smell - all he can sense is the horrible smell of the burning skin. He’s finally able to place the knife aside and slowly pull the arrow. He was right - It’s barbed and he’s not at all surprised, because he knows Jack and he was careful about his weapons even before all of this. He’s never made it easy.

He takes Niki’s other handkerchief (why does she have so many?) and dips it into the small container of antiseptic, dabbing around the wound. He doesn’t dare touch the wound itself yet, because he knows from experience it’ll upset the burns, but he does what he can around it. it cleans up the blood, which he thinks Niki will appreciate, and carefully wraps the bandages around her entire middle, covering it thoroughly.

He looks to the side, where her belt lays. Tommy doesn’t fancy when she wakes up and he has to explain why her fancy high-waisted pants are burned at the top, but the belt and the pain around his wrists gives him an idea.

He can’t pretend he feels safe around her - she’d had him hostage, stood by while he had the shit kicked out of him and even did some of the kicking herself. He takes the handkerchief from between her teeth and wraps it carefully around her wrists, cinching her belt around them after. He packs all of the weapons into her bag and moves it away - He doesn’t think she’ll be able to get up and get them, not with her wound.

He pats down her arms for good measure, just to make sure there are no more knives up her sleeve. There aren’t. He makes sure her head is still securely on the cloak, and crawls himself over to the water pool, breathing heavily.

The fire has spluttered out behind him, and he collapses to his elbows in front of the pool, splashing the cool water in his face and then lifting handfuls of it to his mouth. He has to restrain himself - the last thing he needs is to make himself sick, but he’s _so thirsty_. Everything hurts.

Tommy curls up by Niki’s bag - he does not sleep. How can he?

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


He’s snapped back to reality not long later - the moon is still high in the sky, but he doesn’t hear Jack’s deranged sing-songing anymore. What brings him back is a long, pained groan from Niki - his head whips towards her.

“Tommy?” Niki asks hoarsely, accent thick from sleep. Her accent nowadays is far less thick than it used to be, and this sleepy version is sort of comforting to him - it’s familiar.

He looks at her, and does not respond. She makes an annoyed face when she sees her hands are bound, and goes to sit up. Tommy opens his mouth to stop her, but before he can, she goes white and eases back down.

“I don’t think getting up is a good idea,” Tommy says, surprised by how his voice matches the hoarseness of hers. There is, he supposes, still a chain around his neck he cannot get off - that’s probably the reason.

“What did you do to me?”

“Saved your life.”

“What the hell do you mean?” Niki nearly spits, and Tommy resists the urge to roll his eyes. He’s alert and on guard, but half of his thoughts want food. He hasn’t eaten in so long. He thinks he may be sick, but he doesn’t have time to worry about that right now.

“Jack shot you,” Tommy says simply, bringing more handfuls of water to his lips slowly. “I stopped the bleeding and saved your life. Why are you so surprised?”

“I…” She trails off. It seems she doesn’t have a good answer - Tommy wishes he had the ability to read minds, because all he wants to know is what’s going on in hers right now.

The silence is uncomfortable after that, and Tommy wonders where the help she spoke about was.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


“Tommy, you don’t look well,” Niki says softly, finally. Tommy feels too weak to give her a proper glare, so he gives her his best imitation of one.

“You know I have no weapons,” She continues, as if she’s trying to soothe a hurt animal. He supposes that’s what he is to her. “Can I put my hand on your forehead?”

Tommy obliges almost instinctively before he curses at himself for it, but his heart is telling him to let her and his head asking _what can she do?_ He crawls over to where she’d finally managed to sit herself up, and she puts both of her bound hands in his face, one gently against his forehead.

She hisses. “Tommy, what’s in my bag?”

“Weaponry,” He mutters. “Medical supplies, as you can see. A bunch of handkerchiefs - why do you even need that many anyways?”

“Can you put a cold one of those on your forehead and lay down for me?”

Tommy scoffs. “Why do you care? Did you forget you were literally about to kill me? Fuck off, Niki.”

“Tommy-”

“Cut the shit. You don’t care about me and we both know it.”

Niki laughs bitterly. “You have no idea how much I wish that was true. Wouldn’t it be so much easier if I didn’t care about you?”

What?

“I never stopped caring,” She continues, smile full of contempt. “That’s the reason we’re stuck in this damn situation, isn’t it? If I didn’t care, you’d be dead and I’d be dancing around a fire.”

“Niki…” Tommy begins, but finds he has nothing to say.

“You know, you and your stages of grief were helpful in the end. Remember when you said you were too tired to be angry?”

Tommy does. He remembers being exhausted. He still is.

“I’m on that tipping point, but I have anger left. You snapped me out of denial, Tommy - I was wrong about so much.”

Her voice has grown softer again, and Tommy doesn’t want to meet her eyes. He turns his back to her.

“I’m doing this because of you,” Niki whispers to seemingly nobody. Tommy doesn’t think it’s towards him entirely - She sounds distant. That’s okay. It’s not his business to ask.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


There is a weakness potion in Niki’s bag, and Tommy slips it into her water and watches as she slumps to the ground. There is no sign of the sun yet, and while it’s only been a few hours, it feels like they’ve been in this hidey hole for years. However-

There’s a light in the forest. It has to be someone - the someone Niki’d spoke of? He has no idea, but as dizzy as he feels, he prepares for combat.

A familiar shade of blue fades into view, and Technoblade is staring down at him. 

“Tommy,” Techno breathes, crouching gently down in front of him and reaching out. Tommy scoots back quickly, and Techno looks like he’s been hit.

“Take her,” Tommy rasps. He’s not even sure why he says what he does. “Take Niki, get her away from me. Get her somewhere where she can heal, Techno.”

“I- What?”

“She’s gonna fix everything. She’s gonna. I bet. Help her.”

“What about you?”

“Oh, Techno,” Tommy smiles sadly up at his big brother. “Don’t be silly. I’ve been the main character for so long. It’s time someone else be important in this story.”

Techno seems to catch on immediately, and he looks incredibly conflicted. Finally, he settles for buttoning his cloak over Tommy’s shaking shoulders and pressing the customary greeting kiss to his forehead. It fills Tommy with a nostalgic warmth - he misses how things used to be.

“Promise me something,” Techno says as he gently lifts Niki and her bag into his arms. He is careful around the bandages. “Promise me to count to sixty after I leave, and then start yelling for Tubbo, okay? He’ll hear you. Cross my heart.”

Tommy looks up at Techno - his head is spinning a little. “Techno, I’m-”

“This isn’t the time,” Techno says with an air of finality. “You know where to find me - leave a letter. I’ll respond.”

Tommy holds out a pinky. “On all accords?”

Techno gently links their pinkies for a fleeting moment, sealing all of the promises. “It’s a deal.”

Tommy gives a salute, and feels like whooping when Techno half-smiles and salutes back. Maybe this relationship, too, is something he can fix - He knows he wants to. Not at the moment, however - His apology has already been cut off, and his dizziness grows by the second.

It takes some effort to count to sixty without any hiccups, but Tommy manages it. He clears his throat and follows his part of the promise. He screams.

“ _Tubbo!_ ” He screams, as loud as his voice can muster. “ _Tubbo!_ _Tub-_ ”

He breaks off into coughing, throat unable to support his yelling. Tubbo will come. Tubbo will come. Techno had pinky-promised it. Tubbo will hear him, and Tubbo will come.

There is light in the forest again, and Tommy stumbles from the brush towards it. It must be. It must-

“ _Tommy!_ ” He hears distantly, and nearly bursts into tears there.

“ _I’m here!_ ” Tommy screams back, forcing back a sob in his already aching throat. The lights get closer, and bob, and suddenly through the treeline-

Tubbo skids to his knees in front of Tommy, sweeping him up into his arms. It’s been so long since Tommy’s been held by a positive warmth ( _Besides Niki, his traitorous brain insists_ ) that he almost cannot handle it.

Tubbo’s fingers gently brush against the manacle locked around his neck, and Tommy cannot stop the high whine of pain that leaves him as Tubbo does. He feels Tubbo stiffen, the hand rubbing his back go still, and hears him demand something. His hearing is far away - he feels like he’s underwater.

“Stay still for me, Tommy,” Tubbo murmurs into his ear, and Tommy nods in response. That he can do. He can be still. He’ll do anything if Tubbo will keep him in this protective embrace.

The manacle comes undone and falls, and it takes until Tubbo is working on the one at his wrist to realise he's picked the lock. The scabs underneath are bloody and angry and sure to scar, and Tubbo looks devastated upon seeing them. He presses Tommy’s skinned wrist to his face, and Tommy almost misses the soft kiss his best friend places there.

He’s missed the gentle affection he used to receive from the people close to him - Tubbo and him have been healing despite it all, and neither of them had dared to do half of the things they used to do when they were closer. He misses Techno’s casual forehead kisses every time he saw him. He misses the way Niki would pull him into her shoulder and let him rest his eyes.

He misses the way Wilbur would hold him when he was tired, would gently hum and comb a hand through his hair and sing him to sleep. He misses Wilbur.

But he knows it isn’t healthy to dwell on the past - he revels now in the way that Tubbo somehow manages to fit all of him against his significantly smaller figure. He revels now in the way Tubbo is tearfully telling him he’s safe now, he’ll be okay, they’ll be home soon. He revels in the way Tubbo treats him like something precious - after everything, he thinks he deserves someone who loves him without an ulterior motive.

He will find that in Snowchester - They are all here now, he realises, staring down at him concernedly. He will find that in the letters he sends to Techno, and in the way that Wilbur’s grave is going to soon grow flowers.

Spring is coming, and the air is fresh. The sun is finally rising over the horizon, and Tommy is safe to watch it over the shoulder of the person who loves him most.

**Author's Note:**

> :D
> 
> is it what y'all were hoping it'd be? i hope so! this one is far shorter (though these never seem to be Actually Short-). i have more plans for more stuff, including more editions of I Wear The Chain I Forged In Life!
> 
> comment?? please?? tell me everything you felt i absolutely adore every commenter
> 
> as always,  
> links (come say hi/and or yell at me for my sins!!!)
> 
> tumblr: http://bonespell.tumblr.com/
> 
> instagram: https://instagram.com/bonespell._?igshid=ldttylwcn5ke


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